MOSCOW, August 1 (RIA Novosti) – Russian experts did not visit the crash site of the Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine, a senior official of Russia’s civil aviation watchdog Rosaviatsiya said on Friday.
“A visit to the air crash site can be made only under control of the country, authorized to lead the investigation, in other words – the Dutch side. The international commission has not made such a decision so far,” said Oleg Storchevoi, a deputy Rosaviatsiya chief and Russia’s envoy to the international team of investigators.
According to Storchevoi, the Dutch side had earlier said that Russian experts in the international commission would be allowed to visit the crash site.
Wim van der Weegen, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Board, which is heading the investigation, said earlier in the day there was no need at the moment for a large-scale search at the crash zone.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman announced on Friday that a full multinational team of 101 experts, investigating the cause of the Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine had finally reached the crash site.
The experts had been unable to reach the destination for four days before they managed to find an alternative route on July 31.
The team includes 10 experts sent by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), while 53 are from the Netherlands and 38 from Australia.
The Malaysia Airlines aircraft with 298 passengers on board crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17.
Ukrainian authorities put the blame for shooting down the plane on independence supporters. The latter insist they do not have the means to hit a target flying as high as the airliner was.
